April 14, 2051
by Banjo Jackson
Nashville, TN
One of the great things about being a DH is less chance of being injured. Afterall, many DH’s don’t even run the basepaths often as they tend to be all or nothing type batters. Sure, there’s the danger of slipping down the dugout steps after striking out or breaking your leg on home plate while celebrating a walk-off grand slam, but those incidents are rare. Taking the field after months of hibernation can lead to the discovery of myriad ailments that weren’t noticeable prior vacating the dugout or batter’s box. This is the case for Matt Garrison, who landed himself on the IL this week following his first game in RF.
The Bluebirds were dealing with a small dilemma when RF Martin Hemming was cautiously placed on the IL with an ailing back. Suck it up on defense for a couple of weeks and plug in another slugger into the lineup or weaken the lineup and put an apt fielder in the outfield. They chose the former option and stuck Garrison in RF while Hemming’s roster replacement, August Helfter, slid into the DH role. In his first attempt, Garrison made a surprisingly nice play to take away a line drive extra base hit in the 3rd inning. In the 5th inning, however, came time for Garrison to test his arm strength. San Fernando Bears 1B Tyler Ober delivered a bases loaded single to RF and Farid bin Mubarek rounded 3B setting up a close play at the plate. Garrison came up firing with an errant throw to home that was luckily fielded by pitcher, Barney Lindsay, and looked to be in noticeable pain. Reports after the game revealed Garrison was dealing with bone chips in his elbow.
Matt Garrison
“I didn’t even know I had an elbow problem,” said Garrison following the Bluebirds 6-4 victory. “To be honest, this was my first time throwing a ball since the first day of spring. I didn’t even warm up prior to the game – completely forgot that’s what people do. I’m sure that was part of the reason it’s acting up.”
The injury to Garrison comes at a terrible time as the slugger seems to have finally found his groove at the plate over the past year. Garrison struggled mightily in the BBA and did not live up to his potential or minor league success, but the Bluebirds couldn’t find a suitable trade partner were patient and were rewarded with Garrison’s .870 OPS and shared team league with 32 HR, despite a poor start. He had a 1.093 OPS with 3 HR in the playoffs and his success carried over into 2051 with a .391 AVG and 1 HR before getting injured.
